I don't know if any of you watch the Weather Channel but do yourselves a huge favor and watch the segments on the Coast Guard. It has to be among if not the best docmentaries on TV.

Not only will your chest burst with pride for these dedicated men and women but don't be surprised if you find more than a handful of tears coursing down your cheeks as they save the lives of kids, adults, you name it. And they damn well ain't doing it for the money!

I overheard one person make a remark that "they get paid." PAID! You jump out of a helo sixty feet above the Gulf of Sitka sometime with water temps in the upper thirties. The hard boiled folks they save just burst out crying knowing that if the CG wasn't there, they were dead men! Just recently two of these heroes gave their lives in a drug bust off Florida. Now you tell me a cop who works and trains If I'm in trouble on the seas, call the Goast Guard! At least then I know I'm having a fighting chance!

The US Coast Guard has always impressed me. I came very close to enlisting with them when I graduated high school, but instead I went with the Marines (not a bad choice either!). But really, they are both elite outfits.

You're right Todd, the Coast Guard and all Search and Rescue personnel are unsung heroes. Here in Nova Scotia right now, there are search teams looking for 5 young men who's fishing boat capsized off the southern coast of Nova Scotia on Sunday night.The whole province is praying and hoping they will be found, but with the storm on Monday and another one in today, it doesn't look good.

As someone who is looking to retire and live on a sail boat, I would say that I am glad the Coast Guard is there. They risk their live day in and day out. They deserve all the praise that we can give them.

When I was in Astoria last November, I chatted with two enlisted men of USCGC Steadfast WMEC 623, who told me that the ship was due to depart Astoria for a combat tour off the Persian Gulf coast of Iraq, to guard the oil terminals there.

The crewmen told me that the ship had never fired her 25mm bow-mounted gun in combat, but they were trained and prepared to do so. People often forget that Coast Guard vessels are designed and built as combat vessels, and do carry out combat missions.